The Fourth Wall
page 3
By Gregory Reed
Features Editor
The proposed construction
of a new off-campus housing
complex has reignited the ongoing
struggles between Penn State:
Mont Alto students and the Mont
Alto community. Inarecent town
meeting, to discuss and announce
the chances of a new student
housing complex off Slabtown
Road, citizens and several students
were given the chance to confront
one another.
The property, which would be
built by Educational Property
Group inc., would house up to 177
students and feature 24-hour
surveillance cameras, in-room
washer/dryers, and, due to its
proximity to the campus, it still
would be able to offer the ‘college
experience’ while granting the
freedoms that commuters share.
However, in light of recent
transgressions and negative press
surrounding campus behavior, the
proposition of more students in a
freer environment does not sit well
with many members of the Mont
Alto community.
The students in attendance were
able to voice concerns with the
community consistently grouping
all of the students into a mass of
vandalizing deviants, rather than
determining whether or not certain
students are to blame, or if non-
student vandals are escaping
prosecution. While the
community was given this view, the
concerns cited were still prevalent
with the rise of disconnect with the
students and the citizens.
The University’s formal stance
on the issue is sparse, as affiliation
with off-campus housing reaches
only on-campus advertising and
posting on the campus’s website.
Nonetheless, more local student
housing would be beneficial to the
campus, as the past Fall 2007
semester reports that 96 students
requested on-campus housing that
could not be filled by current
housing.
In response to the community’s
question of why campus land
cannot be used for housing, Ron
Swope, Business Director at Penn
State: Mont Alto explained that the
campus land available for that type
of housing is already in use and
that Housing and Food Services is
a business-like entity that would
have to take time to consider the
benefits of more housing.
Foremost, the cost of that type of
proposed housing is much cheaper
for a non-University company to
build.
In addition, Dr. Gnage,
Chancellor of Penn State: Mont
Alto, has also written a formal letter
to the Mont Alto Borough
requesting an audience to address
the recent student transgressions
and the possibility of a committee
that would consist of faculty,
students, and citizens.
As of print, there has been no
response from the Borough.
By Jordan Martin
Editorial Division Editor
Fahad Jaha’s association with
the military began when he was 18.
After he was forced to drop out of
college due to housing problems,
he spent some time working, and
eventually enlisted. According to
Jaha, “I was homeless for about a
couple months, almost a year, and
then I joined the Army. I did a
bunch of odd jobs and stuff [in
the interim].”
Jaha served in Korea for two
years on the tenuous border
opposing North Korea, the DMZ.
the border was to slow down
invading North Korean forces.
“When I was in Korea, intelligence
told us that there were 500,000
artillery pieces in North Korea
pointed at our motor pool, so if it
did pop off, we would have been
obliterated within seconds,” Jaha
said.
After his time in Korea, Jaha
returned to the U.S. to serve at Fort
Hood in Texas. Circumstances
were quite different back in the
States. “When I got to Fort Hood,
it was all about the standard. It was
all about looking good; it was
about being a good soldier,” said
Jaha.
Kuwait and Iraq for a year. Jaha
pointed out that he traveled far and
wide during this time. “I’ve been
to Germany, I’ve been to Japan, I’ve
been all around the States,” he said.
“I pretty much went to the
armpit of everywhere in the world.”
Iraq has been a highly
controversial and polarizing
subject for the last several years.
Especially now, one of the major
“I pretty much
went to the
armpit of
everywhere in
the world.”
-Fahad Jaha
political issues on many minds,
voters and politicians alike, is the
war in Iraq.
Jaha shared some of his
experiences in Iraq, and gave some
soldier and becoming a civilian
again. -
1 asked Jaha, “How did serving
in Iraq differ from serving in Korea
or Fort Hood?”
His reply was, “We did a lot of
training at Fort Hood, to prepare
for Iraq. I was ten days away from
getting out of the Army, and they
told me to pack up my stuff, I was
going to Iraq. So I served an extra
year and a half in Iraq. We got to
Kuwait, and it was about 120
degrees. I stayed there for two
days, did a little bit of operations,
and they sent me out on an op
mission by myself for 40 days, and
I ended up meeting up with this
warrant officer because we were
pulling all of 4ID’s (4th Infantry
Division) equipment up to Iraq.
We’d find IED’s (improvised
explosive devices) right outside
the gates, I don’t even understand
it because we have guards
patrolling the area, and how could
they be setting up IED’s in front of
us? And also, when I made the first
jump into Iraq, we went over seven
IED’s, and they just didn’t go off.
And the convoy right behind us
got blown up.”
He continued with, “And this
one time in particular, me and [the
this vehicle. .. A vehicle had broken
down and we needed to pull out
that vehicle as soon as possible.
Me and [the warrant officer]
jumped in the Humvee, and I only
had my Kevlar on, and [he] only
had his Kevlar, too. We were trying
to jump start this vehicle from our
Humvee and get it ready to go, and
we started getting shot at. My first
initial reaction was to drop to the
ground so the bullets won’t be able
to hit you. They won’t be shooting
that close to the ground. So [he]
yells at me, “Get up, start shooting,
do something. We’ve got to get out
of here.” I jumped up, and we fixed
the vehicle real quick, and we rolled
out. The sound that it makes when
a bullet flies by your head, it
sounds like popcorn popping. And
then it sounds like something’s
going by your head real fast. We
could hear the muzzle fire off in the
background. So we fixed that
vehicle as quick as possible. We
didn’t have any body armor on.
One shot anywhere, and I probably
would have been done for.”
“It was crazy. We used to have
mortars come in, and we’d see
rockets go over our head. They
were trying to attack us all the
time... When I got to Baghdad, it
seemed to slow down a lot more,
because we have our biggest
operations base, the Green Zone,
lot of things slowed down, and my
whole time there I was in charge of
an airport. I would go on missions
by myself with civilian contractors
because we had some duty where
we had to go and help civilian
contractors. I went all around Iraq.
It was a long year.”
My next question for Jaha
asked him about his feelings
involving the media’s portrayal of
the war in Iraq? And has it been
accurate? pa
Jaha told me, “The media, what
you guys hear, and what we hear
in the Army, they are almost two
totally, completely different things.
You hear about the missions while
we’ re doing the missions, or right
after we’ve completed the
missions. That’s a good way for
terrorists to able to set up
positions, if the media’s putting us
out there like that.”
“I don’t really like how Fox News
portrays it. I think that we’re doing
alot of good in Iraq. What I learned
is those people are scared just like
anybody else. They just want
normal, stable lives. Like America.
With their religion. They just want
to lead normal lives, and have
somewhere nice to bring up their
children. We’re doing a lot of good,
and we’re trying.”
“The main thing is, I wish we
had a good reason. It seems like
our commanders aren’t telling us
enough; our commander in chief,
President Bush. I just wish they
could give us a better reason why
my friends are dead. A lot of my
friends got killed. I just wish they
could give me a straight answer.
They knew that it was going to be
totally crazy to go into Iraq. If you
look throughout history, they all
tried. It was all religious wars. They
were fighting with the Muslims.
They’ve been fighting there for
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